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    Ukiyo-E 120 illustrations
    Ukiyo-E 120 illustrations
    Ukiyo-E 120 illustrations
    Ebook196 pages2 hours

    Ukiyo-E 120 illustrations

    By Dora Amsden and Woldermar von Seidlitz

    2.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Ukiyo-e (‘pictures of the floating world’) is a branch of Japanese art which originated during the period of prosperity in Edo (1615-1868). Characteristic of this period, the prints are the collective work of an artist, an engraver, and a printer. Created on account of their low cost thanks to the progression of the technique, they represent daily life, women, actors of kabuki theatre, or even sumo wrestlers. Landscape would also later establish itself as a favourite subject. Moronobu, the founder, Shunsho, Utamaro, Hokusai, and even Hiroshige are the most widely-celebrated artists of the movement. In 1868, Japan opened up to the West. The masterful technique, the delicacy of the works, and their graphic precision immediately seduced the West and influenced greats such as the Impressionists, Van Gogh, and Klimt. This is known as the period of ‘Japonisme’. Through a thematic analysis, Woldemar von Seidlitz and Dora Amsden implicitly underline the immense influence which this movement had on the entire artistic scene of the West. These magnificent prints represent the evolution of the feminine ideal, the place of the Gods, and the importance accorded to landscape, and are also an invaluable witness to a society now long gone.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherParkstone International
    Release dateNov 14, 2023
    ISBN9781781609491
    Ukiyo-E 120 illustrations

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    Reviews for Ukiyo-E 120 illustrations

    2.5/5

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    • 1/5
      For anyone coming to the subject and looking for a modern interpretation of the history of Ukiyo-e, this book is going to be an incredible disappointment. The information is totally outdated. I have an interest in the development of the study of Japanese woodblock prints, and I enjoy reading books written in the 19th and early 20th century about the subject, so for me the fact that this book is based on writings that are a hundred years old was not a problem in itself... I find older works interesting. Unfortunately, this one is not simply a modern reprint of Dora Amsden's 'Impressions of Ukiyo-Ye', which was published in 1905. It is a joining of that book to the work of Woldemar von Seidlitz, without any indication within the book as to which parts belong to von Seidlitz and which belong to Amsden. I have the original Amsden book and on comparing the two volumes found that those parts that belong to Amsden have been edited in the new book, so the text isn't identical to the original. I can't fathom the point in taking an old work, which is so outdated that its antiquarian charm is the only thing it has going for it, and altering even that! In addition, the illustrations of artists' signatures included in Amsden's book are excluded from this one, as is the section entitled 'Hints to Collectors'. The publisher seems to have taken two out-of-copyright books and melded them together without any regard for whether or not the finished result will be of any use to modern students of the subject.

    Book preview

    Ukiyo-E 120 illustrations - Dora Amsden

    Beautiful Woman after her Bath and a Rooster, Okumura Masanobu, c. 1730

    Benizuri-e, 31 x 44 cm. Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo.

    Chronology

    16th century:

    Urbanisation in Japan gives rise to a merchant-artisan class that produces written work and paintings for public consumption, marking a divergence from the earlier court-based artistic tradition.

    1603:

    Beginning of the Edo Period.

    1618:

    Birth of Hishikawa Moronobu, who becomes influential in the development of woodblock printing techniques due to his practice of hand-colouring monochrome prints.

    1688:

    Beginning of the Genroku era, which lasts through 1704. Often called the Golden Era of the Edo Period, Genroku is characterised by economic development and a flourishing of the arts.

    1752:

    Birth of Torii Kiyonaga.

    1753:

    Birth of Kitagawa Utamaro.

    1760:

    Birth of Katsushika Hokusai.

    1760s:

    Invention of nishiki-e, translated literally as brocade prints, the process of layering colours on a print to create a richer effect.

    1765:

    The first publication of nishiki-e prints, created by Suzuki Harunobu.

    1780s:

    Torii Kiyonaga’s bijinga prints of courtesans and beautiful women are critically aclaimed, and many Ukiyo-e artists concentrate on this theme.

    1797:

    Birth of Utagawa Hiroshige.

    1806:

    Death of Utamaro.

    1818:

    First publication of the prints of Hiroshige.

    1831:

    Publication of Hokusai’s collection of prints, Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji.

    1842:

    Images depicting courtesans and kabuki actors are banned for a period due to the Tenpo social reforms.

    1848:

    Beginning of the Kaei era, during which foreign merchant ships from Europe and America arrived at Japan’s harbors in increasing numbers. The cultural effects of the Western influence are illustrated in the Ukiyo-e prints contemporary to this time.

    1849:

    Death of Hokusai.

    1855:

    The third of the Great Ansei earthquakes strikes Edo and kills 4,300.

    1858:

    Death of Hiroshige.

    1868:

    Official commencement of the Meiji Restoration, when the Imperial governement in Japan regains power and seizes the land of prominent people loyal to the previous shogunate. The abolishment of the samurai class and the blurring of societal lines due to reforms results in violent uprisings and protests. The art of Ukiyo-e falls into obscurity under the new social structure and the ensuing rise of industrialisation.

    1880s:

    The opening of Japan’s economy gives Western artists invaluable encounters with Eastern art, particularly the delicate and colourful woodblock prints, and Ukiyo-e experiences a revival in Europe.

    1887:

    Vincent Van Gogh paints imitations of the works of Hiroshige and Kesai Eisen. Van Gogh and other Western artists become avid collectors of Ukiyo-e prints.

    20th century:

    Revival of Ukiyo-e’s popularity in Japan. Artists such as Watanabe Shozaburo produce prints demonstrating significant Western influence.

    Today:

    Ukiyo-e is still regularly produced, and remains well-liked, particularly amongst Western tourists due to its treatment of traditional Japanese themes. The artform has been credited as being the inspiration for modern forms of popular Japanese art, such as manga and anime.

    Lovers and Attendant, Hishikawa Moronobu, c. 1680

    Ōban print, 29.7 x 35.3 cm. Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu

    The Art of Ukiyo-e is a spiritual rendering of the realism and naturalness of the daily life, intercourse with nature, and imaginings of a lively impressionable race in the full tide of a passionate craving for art. This characterisation of Jarves forcibly sums up the motive of the masters of Ukiyo-e, the Popular School of Japanese Art, so poetically interpreted as The Floating World.

    To the passionate pilgrim and devotee of nature and art who has visited the enchanted Orient, it is unnecessary to prepare the way for the proper understanding of Ukiyo-e. This joyous idealist trusts less to dogma than to impressions. I know nothing of Art, but I know what I like, is the language of sincerity, sincerity which does not take a stand upon creed or tradition, nor upon cut and dried principles and conventions. It is truly said that they alone can pretend to fathom the depth of feeling and beauty in an alien art, who resolutely determine to scrutinise it from the point of view of an inhabitant of the place of its birth.

    To the born cosmopolite who assimilates alien ideas by instinct or the gauging power of his sub-conscious intelligence the feat is easy, but to the less intuitively gifted, it is necessary to serve a novitiate in order to appreciate a wholly recalcitrant element like Japanese Art, which at once demands attention, and defies judgment upon accepted theories. These sketches are not an individual expression, but an endeavour to give in condensed form, the opinions of those qualified by study and research to speak with authority upon the form of Japanese Art, which in its most concrete development, the Ukiyo-e print, is claiming the attention of the art world.

    The development of colour printing is, however, only the objective symbol of Ukiyo-e, for, as our Western oracle Professor Fenollosa

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